It’s the start of 2014, time for my annual update on truths about the Internet that you should know.

Anyone who goes online should do so with their eyes wide open. There are a lot of bad assumptions people make about the online world in terms of safety, security, privacy, rights and such that can hurt them now and in the future.

Employment, reputation, personal information, credit identity — all this and more can be at risk if you don’t understand the core facts about the digital world as they stand today.

There are 10 things you need to know. Due to the length of the material, I’ll present the first five this week and the remaining five next week. Read more…